Bing's Other Rival; Exaggerating Ads

Bing put up a good fight, but Google Chairman Eric Schmidt says the company’s biggest rival in the search arena is Amazon. "People don't think of Amazon as search, but if you are looking for something to buy, you are more often than not looking for it on Amazon,” Schmidt said during a speech in Berlin on Monday. “They’re obviously more focused on the commerce side of the equation, but, at their roots, they are answering users' questions and searches, just as we are.” Read on via The Drum.

Snapchatter

Recent reports of Snapchat’s plunge into advertising may have been exaggerated. In a piece on the company’s platform ambitions, The Information notes, “The forthcoming ads—and recent tests—are part of a strategy used by Snapchat’s founders during its ongoing mega-funding round to prove to potential investors that, if they wanted, the app could monetize its millions of users in that way.” More.

Selling Yahoo

Yahoo has nabbed Kevin Gentzel, former chief revenue officer at The Washington Post, to run ad sales. The stakes are high, as Mike Shields reports for the WSJ. “Mr. Gentzel, who will report to Yahoo’s head of Americas Ned Brody, is now taking on one of the more high-pressured jobs in online advertising. Chief Executive Marissa Mayer has spent the last few years radically remaking the company, and that makeover has yet to pay off in ad revenue growth.” Job one: package native! More.

Aereo Buzzer Shot

Though the Supreme Court ordered Internet broadcasting company Aereo to halt operations in July for infringing on copyright, the company – or what’s left of it – is still fighting. CEO Chet Kanoji is asking the FCC to change the definition of a video provider. He writes in a blog post, “We believe that clarifying the [multichannel video program distributor] definition to narrowly include linear online video services like Aereo's would have clear benefits to consumers, creators and distributors alike." Read it. And more in Ad Age.